Saudi King and Turkey’s President pave way to resolve their differences

Turkey and Saudi Arabia agreed to keep open channels of dialogue to resolve differences between the two countries.

The move was announced after a phone call between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Friday. Both leaders discussed bilateral relations.

A phone call between #Saudi King Salman and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip #Erdogan mulled ways to resolve differences between the two countries. https://t.co/26FcyEah6y

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) November 21, 2020

Chairman of the Saudi Chambers of Commerce, Aljan Al-Aljan suggested last month that Saudi businesses and consumers have a national duty to boycott Turkish goods and services.

“A boycott of everything Turkish, be it imports, investment or tourism, is the responsibility of every Saudi ‘trader and consumer’, in response to the continued hostility of the Turkish government against our leadership, country and citizens,” Al-Ajlan said in a tweet.

The Saudi government media office denied that the boycott was official policy.

“The official authorities in the Kingdom have not placed any restrictions on Turkish goods,” it said.

Multiple supermarkets announced stopping the import and sale of Turkish products since then.

“This decision has come in solidarity with the popular boycott campaign,” one of them, Abdullah Al-Othaim Markets, said on Twitter.

 The newly introduced campaign targets Turkey’s coronavirus-hit economy as it grapples with a currency in free fall.

Wary of rattling foreign investors and amid suspicion that Turkey could lodge a complaint with the World Trade Organization. Due to this the Saudi government has sought to distance itself from the boycott.

Authorities have denied putting restrictions on Turkish products and say that citizens  led the campaign.

A joint statement from eight leading Turkish business groups this month claimed that many Saudi companies had been “forced to sign a letter of commitment not to import goods from Turkey”.

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